London, Macmillan, 1875
Handsomely bound copy of Monteiro's Angola, one of the few English language books on the region at that time.
Joachim John Monteiro (also known as José Maria Correa Monteiro) was a Portuguese colonial official and naturalist. However, he was born in London and trained as a mining engineer at the Royal School of Mines in that city. His wife, Rose Monteiro, shared his interests in natural history. In 1858 he went to Angola, where he appears to have spent most of his time during the next 18 years. There he collected natural history specimens and distinguished himself through his remarkable observations on animal life, published in his book Angola and the River Congo (London, 1875,). Monteiro's Hornbill, Tockus monteiri, was named after him in 1865.
The plates and illustrations incorporate extensive landscape scenery as well as totemic tribal items and artifact. The book sections on the slave trade, fetish houses, etc.
In 1876 he and his wife settled in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo, Mozambique), where he served as labour agent and emigration agent to the government of the Cape Colony from July that year until his untimely death two years later. He continued his animal observations and, with Rose, collected plants in the neighbourhood of the town, sending herbarium specimens to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, near London. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and on 31 October 1877 was elected a corresponding member of the newly founded South African Philosophical Society. The society deplored his death and lauded his work at its annual general meeting on 26 July 1878. (Biographical Database of Southern African Science).
First edition. 2 volumes in 1, 8vo, viii, [i], 305; iv, [i], 340 pp., frontispiece folding map, 16 plates, contemporary blue polished calf gilt prize binding, occasional light spotting (more so to end papers), a very good copy.
Joachim John Monteiro (also known as José Maria Correa Monteiro) was a Portuguese colonial official and naturalist. However, he was born in London and trained as a mining engineer at the Royal School of Mines in that city. His wife, Rose Monteiro, shared his interests in natural history. In 1858 he went to Angola, where he appears to have spent most of his time during the next 18 years. There he collected natural history specimens and distinguished himself through his remarkable observations on animal life, published in his book Angola and the River Congo (London, 1875,). Monteiro's Hornbill, Tockus monteiri, was named after him in 1865.
The plates and illustrations incorporate extensive landscape scenery as well as totemic tribal items and artifact. The book sections on the slave trade, fetish houses, etc.
In 1876 he and his wife settled in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo, Mozambique), where he served as labour agent and emigration agent to the government of the Cape Colony from July that year until his untimely death two years later. He continued his animal observations and, with Rose, collected plants in the neighbourhood of the town, sending herbarium specimens to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, near London. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and on 31 October 1877 was elected a corresponding member of the newly founded South African Philosophical Society. The society deplored his death and lauded his work at its annual general meeting on 26 July 1878. (Biographical Database of Southern African Science).
First edition. 2 volumes in 1, 8vo, viii, [i], 305; iv, [i], 340 pp., frontispiece folding map, 16 plates, contemporary blue polished calf gilt prize binding, occasional light spotting (more so to end papers), a very good copy.
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